


And finally, it clicks

by LeDiz



Series: The 48: Pokemon [3]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Gen, Silly, movie 4, the obvious occurs to the professor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-08-10 13:57:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7847761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeDiz/pseuds/LeDiz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Professor Samuel Oak was young, he met and admired a young trainer named Ash. For the last decade or so, he's watched a boy named Ash grow up. The two things surely have nothing to do with each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And finally, it clicks

It was hard to imagine now, but once, Professor Oak had barely paid attention to Ash’s phonecalls.

Back then, he’d been more humouring the boy than anything. After all, he hadn’t expected him to make it very far. How could he, when Ash was always late, almost never caught any pokemon and usually won both matches and badges out of sheer luck? He’d expected Ash to give up after six months, the way most young trainers did.

But he’d learned, since then. What Ash lacked in… well… everything that was supposed to matter in training, he made up for in… everything that made Ash good at what he did. Not that Oak could quite figure out what that was. He’d tried—oh, lord, how he’d tried—but every time he did, he mostly found reasons why Ash should have failed as a trainer and become a farmhand, or something.

But now he knew better. Ash was in this for the long haul. And even though Oak didn’t think Ash would ever become a Pokemon Master in the traditional sense, he didn’t doubt that Ash would be remembered throughout history as one of the greatest trainers there had ever been. Not to mention he’d really become quite fond of the kid.

And besides, as a researcher of rare pokemon, Oak simply couldn’t afford to miss a single one of Ash-the-Legendary-Pokemon-Magnet’s phone calls.

Still, he was a very busy man, and so once he realised this was just a checking-in phone call, he really thought he could get away with focussing more on what he’d been doing before. It wasn’t until Ash had hung up, distracted by a budding argument with Misty, that where the boy was headed filtered through Oak’s brain.

He was in the Johto Region, obviously. It was, coincidentally, where Oak had spent quite a few of his own formative years. He’d finally reached the edge of the continent and was starting the island-hopping circuit that began the second half of any good Johto trip. All of this was old news to Oak. He mainly only had Ash checking in because the boy had that nasty habit of near-death experiences, and it was always good to know he wasn’t coming home in a box.

But he hadn’t known Ash would be going anywhere near _that_ island, or _that_ forest.

That forest where Oak could remember having a particular interesting experience. With two boys, a girl, and a pikachu.

For the first time in all the years Oak had known Ash, the name actually clicked.

“ _ARGH_!”

“Ahhh!”

Oak whirled around, and when he saw Tracey staring back at him, the papers he’d thrown up in shock slowly floating down around him, he flung out an arm to point at him. “Ash Ketchum!”

“Uh… no?” Tracey said weakly. “Tracey Sketchit, remember?”

“Ash Ketchum, whose partner is Pikachu!” he shouted. “Who travels with Misty and Brock and has a pokedex and arghhh!”

“Uh…?”

“All this time!” he cried, spinning around again. “All this time, it never even occurred to me…!”

He was vaguely aware of Tracey still staring at him like he’d gone crazy, but he was more preoccupied with his own stupidity. He sunk back down in his chair and buried his hands in his hair.

When he was a boy, he’d encountered a strange pokemon known as Celebi. A time-travelling Legendary Pokemon that had taken him to the future. There, he’d met another boy that was brave and kind and had such a _way_ with pokemon… Oak had been a little bit in awe of him.

His name had been Ash.

“Well, honestly, though, how was I supposed to know it was him?” he demanded, slapping his hand against the table. “The boy I knew was so intelligent, and he’s never seemed all that bright at all! And mature! I’ve watched him grow up and he’s never been mature before!”

Well, not until the last few years, but that was hardly the point! If Ash was going to turn out to be the boy that had been Oak’s childhood hero, then he should have had the decency to act like it… since he was a child. Yes.

No need to confuse the matter after all.

“Okay, as long as you make sense to you, Professor,” Tracey muttered dryly, but Oak ignored that, glaring at nothing instead. He felt stupid, now. He was a professor – he wasn’t supposed to feel stupid.

Well used to the mood swings and disconnected thought-processes, Tracey just rolled his eyes and began picking up the papers he’d dropped. Mad genius, he figured. You worked with what you got.

**Author's Note:**

> The 48 are a collection of unfinished or pointless one shots saved to my hard drive, and are now being posted here for people's interest.
> 
> Whatever I may think of the anime at the time, I usually enjoy the movies. 4 was probably the first one I thought was so okay it was average, but I did like the added bit of depth to Oak. And it gave me this head canon, so.


End file.
